Communication between people can take many forms, ranging from personal conversations to books, written messages, or even hand and body signals. Recently, the development of computers and telecommunications systems have provided a whole new paradigm for communications. The public telephone system now permits one person to speak with another without any geographical limitations. The advent of the facsimile machine provides a means of sending a copy of a physical document anywhere in the world.
In addition to real-time communications such as phone conversations, computers and telecommunications systems offer several forms of electronic messaging. These systems permit a sender to leave a message for a recipient, wherein the recipient can respond to the message at his or her convenience As a result of the convenience and reliability of electronic messaging systems, the use of such systems is on the rise. Although the greatest increase in the use of these systems is in the business sector resulting from the increased mobility required for many business people in today's global marketplace, electronic messaging is increasingly becoming popular for personal use in many homes.
Voice mail service is a very successful form of electronic messaging which utilizes circuit switched telephone technology and the public switched telephone network (PSTN) for message transport. In general, voice mail systems are relatively easy to use and offer a comfortable medium of communications for most people. The user interface for voice mail service primarily consists of system generated voice prompts and the use of the telephone touchtone dialpad for user control inputs. The problem with voice messaging, however, is that it is relatively expensive. Typically, the calling party incurs the network expense of creating and leaving the message. This cost can be high if it involves a call across the country or an international connection.
Electronic mail ("e-mail") is another successful form of electronic messaging. To create an e-mail message, a sender typically uses a computer keyboard to type in a recipient's name and e-mail address, a subject line, and the main body of the message. The message is then transported over a data network and delivered to the recipient. The advantages of e-mail service are that it is a very cost effective and efficient form of electronic messaging. The disadvantages are that the user interface is more complicated compared to voice messaging, and it usually requires the use of a keyboard to create the message.
E-mail is becoming increasingly popular despite the above-mentioned limitations. This popularity is due partly to the Internet, which comprises a vast, sprawling collection of networks spanning the world. The ubiquity of the Internet greatly increases the number of users available for sending and receiving e-mail messages. Furthermore, Internet access is relatively inexpensive (typically a nominal monthly fee). As a result, Internet offers a very cost efficient transport medium for delivering e-mail messages to a large number of users.
There is, however, a growing segment of Internet users who are not able to utilize Internet e-mail services In an effort to make the information and services available on the Internet and world wide web (WWW) more accessible to home users, non-PC based technology has been developed to access the Internet. This technology is generally referred to as Consumer Internet Appliances, one implementation of which is referred to as "Internet TV" or "Web TV". Internet TV is the concept of providing Internet access and services to non-PC users via low-cost TV/set-top box combinations and other non-PC devices. The user experience would be "TV-like" and Internet complexity would be concealed from the end-users. The user controls for a basic Internet TV service are likely to be the addition of a few buttons to an infrared TV remote control.
The problem with Internet TV, however, is that the basic service typically does not include a computer keyboard. Thus, a potentially large segment of Internet TV users would be unable to utilize electronic messaging in the form of e-mail services via the Internet. For many Internet TV owners, the need for a keyboard to access e-mail services would increase the overall cost of the Internet TV system. A keyboard would also increase the complexity and therefore convenience of accessing the Internet and WWW. This would be in direct opposition to an underlying service concept of Internet TV, which is to make non-technically oriented users as comfortable as possible in accessing the Internet.
In view of the foregoing, it can be appreciated that there exists a substantial need for a new form of electronic messaging service which combines the ease of use of voice mail services with the low cost of e-mail services via the Internet.